During your pregnancy, you ate right, took supplements and exercised faithfully. Once your baby arrived, your priorities shifted from your health care to your child's care. As your baby grows bigger each day, you may notice that those pregnancy pounds aren't budging.

Even more horrifying, could you actually be gaining weight? The only thing you want to grow bigger after the baby, is the baby.

Unfortunately the Institute of Medicine calculates that having a baby will add an average of 1kg of weight a year after giving birth.

Post partum weight gain may not be entirely physiological. It could also be due to medical causes such as thyroid dysfunction, birth control pills, stress and so on.

Recent research shows that when you're stressed, your body releases hormones that can contribute to weight gain. Not only can stress cause weight gain but conventional medicines like anti depressants and anti psychotic drugs given to cope with post partum depression or post partum psychosis can lead to further weight gain.

Weight loss programmes may cause side effects. Homeopathy on the other hand offers a safe, long lasting and holistic solution. Composed of natural elements in minuscule doses, homeopathy has absolutely no side effects.

Instead it goes to the very root of the problem, is gentle on the body and takes into account the emotional and psychological aspects of a patient. International research has shown that certain homeopathic medicines are extremely effective in reducing weight as they help to burn calories faster by speeding up the metabolic rate.

One such 100-year-old homeopathic remedy prepared from an extract of sea-kelp has been researched and accepted by UK's Medicines Control Agency.

We had a case once of a 35 yr old female who came to us with an eight kg weight gain after delivery. She had tried various diet plans and weight loss programmes with hardly any success.

She suffered from depression due to weight gain. We advised a thyroid function test which turned out to be positive for hypothyroidism. We prescribed her a homeopathic medicine - Calcarea Carb 200. Our in house nutritionist drew up a specific diet.

Her weight was regularly and continuously tracked through a 'Body Composition Monitor' which not only measured her weight but also body fat, bone mass, visceral fat, muscle mass, basal metabolic rate, total body water content and metabolic age. With a combination of homeopathic treatment, an individualised diet plan and scientific monitoring of her weight, she not only shook off her extra weight but also her depression.

Losing weight is no longer about looking good but being healthy. Homeopathy helps in doing so safely, surely and systematically so that the weight that comes off, stays off. Enjoy your baby, your food and your new life together!

Homeopathic medicines that help to reduce weight are:

Fucus Vesiculosus 6C - Reduces weight by speeding up the process of burning of fat tissues.

Phytolacca mother tincture - Reduces weight by increasing the metabolic rate .